The workers, disappointed with their work life, went on a strike on Thursday demanding to increase their wages and add them to the middle class.
To protest against the unfair labor practices that have been taking place at Coca Cola, workers from two of Chicago’s production plants went on strike on Thursday.
Coca Cola plants in Niles and Alsip, which represent as many as 319 production and warehouse workers of the company, had earlier negotiated with the carbonated beverage company for a three year contract. In this contract the terms of improved wages, retirement benefits, health insurance and other labor practices had been mentioned. However, this contract expired on Tuesday due to which the workers decided to go on a strike.
According to a nine year veteran who works at Coke was among all those 24 workers who were protesting, Carl Maxwell, the company had not been giving the workers the respect that they deserve. He further added that they do not want to out protesting but they had no other option but to do so. The strike by a union was called at 5:00 am on Thursday and asked the workers to spend their eight hour shift protesting outside the plant.
At the Niles, 100 picketers were expected throughout the day while as many as 50 to 75 workers were at the Alsip, according to the communication director for Teamsters Joint Council, Will Petty. The company tried to negotiate with the workers during which they abruptly left. According to Coca Cola Co, they had offered them new signing bonuses, increase in annual pay along with a healthcare package, furthermore they were options of retirement plans as well, just like the workers wanted, according to the Chicago Tribune reports.
The current wage structure of the employees of the company stands at $12 to $19 per hour. According to Will Petty, the workers of the company usually don’t even know whether they will be asked to work extra hours apart from their nominal shift. The nine year veteran further stated that the workers are just asking for their fair share of the pie and add to the middle working class and they will keep making billions for the company.
According to Charles James, an employee who supplies coke products to fast-food chains and has been with the company for the past 21 years, he says that the price for everything has been going up whether its eggs, milk, taxes etc. except for the their wages.
In 2014, the soft drink giant reported revenue of $45.93 billion along with a net income of $7.1 billion. The company said that it pose a proposal in front of the union but which included everything that was initially in the previous contract.
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